Completely innocent? Really?
The servants’ eyes lit up at the mention of a reward, their dark faces tilting as they carefully recalled the events.
Madam Song’s gaze burned with a hint of smugness. No matter how strict she usually was, these people were, after all, dogs raised by the Song household. They knew how to bark to please their mistress.
Jiang Zhaoying would still meet a miserable end!
After a long wait, a servant kowtowed and spoke.
“It seems a candle fell over and ignited the pile of spirit money on the table. This servant… this servant did not see anyone set the fire.”
While frantically putting out the fire, they clearly heard someone shouting that a candle had fallen onto the table, causing the ancestral hall to catch fire.
Moreover.
When they desperately poured water into the ancestral hall, they vaguely saw several people lying behind the funeral banners—all of them familiar faces.
Whether they were alive or dead, they didn’t know.
But they knew that servants’ lives were cheap, their fates entirely in their masters’ hands.
The young mistress had dealt Madam Song several blows since entering the household—she was a force to be reckoned with.
Instinctively.
They felt they shouldn’t speak carelessly.
Clan Leader Song felt a sharp pain in his forehead, frowning as he scrutinized Jiang Zhaoying.
Her clothes were indeed stained with spilled medicine, likely having been punished to kneel in the ancestral hall before she could even change.
If someone claimed she had set the ancestral hall on fire, he doubted Jiang Zhaoying would dare!
Deep down.
He was even more inclined to believe Jiang Zhaoying’s account.
With Madam Song’s flamboyant personality, framing one or two people would be as easy as pie, wouldn’t it?
Madam Song gritted her teeth in anger at the servants’ and Clan Leader Song’s attitudes, her face hardening as she loudly retorted.
“All these incidents happened after you entered the household. Even if there’s no evidence you set the fire, once rumors spread outside, it won’t do you any good, Jiang Zhaoying. If I were you, I would voluntarily fund the construction of a larger, more magnificent ancestral hall than this one, letting everyone see your filial piety.”
The ancestral hall had to be rebuilt immediately, and the ancestral tablets restored to their rightful places. Otherwise, she would truly lose all face within the Song clan.
Jiang Zhaoying’s red lips curled into a blood-like, cold smile at these words.
Song Chengyu, watching her defiant demeanor, felt the wound in his chest ache even more with anger. Suppressing the annoyance in his eyes, he walked to Jiang Zhaoying’s side, forcing a gentle tone.
“Ying’er, Mother means well. You should be more sensible.”
“Slap!”
Jiang Zhaoying raised her hand and struck Song Chengyu across the face, staring at his instantly darkened expression.
“Is the Song clan so poor it can’t afford a pot of rice, or have you all decided to abandon all decency? Making a newlywed daughter-in-law pay for rebuilding the ancestral hall—if word gets out, I doubt any respectable family would ever ally with you again, would they?”
The Song clansmen felt as if they had swallowed flies—furious yet stifled.
“Jiang Zhaoying.”
Madam Song was left speechless by her blunt words, her face burning with humiliation. Clan Leader Song’s face also flushed hot, more uncomfortable than Song Chengyu’s slapped cheek.
His sons and daughters were just reaching marriageable age.
“Song Chengyu.”
Jiang Zhaoying turned to face Song Chengyu. Since he had delivered himself to her doorstep, she would naturally deal with him first.
“I’ll ask you just one thing: why did you marry me, only to attempt to fake your death and run away with Shen Yuefu?”
These words put the entire Jiang clan on alert.
Even Shen Liuguang’s eyes flashed with sharpness.
Xu Zhiyan and Wei Jiuzhao stepped behind Jiang Zhaoying, while Shen Liuguang also took two steps forward.
They all stared coldly at Song Chengyu.
This man possessed a handsome appearance, his brows and eyes curving like a gentle spring breeze, completely different from their usual aloofness.
Therefore.
When Song Chengyu concealed his sinister expression and replaced it with tenderness, it gave people the illusion that they had previously misunderstood him.
He walked up to Jiang Zhaoying, lowered his gaze, and with a hint of grievance, softly said:
“Where did this Shen Yuefu come from? Ying’er, have you misunderstood something?”
Shen Yuefu had already been brought into the mansion and hidden by him. Since she had never met Shen Yuefu, even if she accused him of no longer being a virgin, he could claim he lost it at a brothel while drinking with friends.
If he stubbornly refused to admit it, what could these people do to him?
“She may be my cousin, but I have had little contact with her, Ying’er. Only once, after getting drunk with friends, I did something that betrayed you—really, only once.”
“Ying’er, even if you calculate that my Heart’s Blood can save The Emperor, even if you dig out my heart, I wouldn’t mind. I only beg you not to misunderstand me, alright?”
Thankfully, his mother acted quickly. Any later, and his Heart’s Blood would have been completely drained.
That fear of knowing he was about to die but being powerless to stop it—Song Chengyu never wanted to experience it again.
Once he gained everything from Jiang Zhaoying, he would strangle her throat slowly, like crushing an ant, tightening bit by bit, making her suffocate gradually, making her life worse than death, letting her taste the feeling of knowing she was about to die but being powerless.
“Then why did you fake your death?”
As Song Chengyu approached, Jiang Zhaoying took a small step back. Lowering her gaze, she clenched her slender fingers.
Today.
She would reveal the truth about Song Chengyu’s faked death to the public.
“I did not fake my death. The imperial physician said it might have been a sudden illness that caused me to stop breathing momentarily, leading everyone to believe I was dead.”
“Is that so?”
Wei Jiuzhao lowered his gaze and chuckled coldly.
“Perhaps I can unravel this mystery.”
The Song clan members suddenly frowned, a sense of foreboding surging in their hearts. They turned in unison to look at the tall and slender Wei Jiuzhao, only to see him raise his hand. Immediately afterward, several figures rushed in, escorting a person.
“Yuefu?”
When Song Chengyu saw clearly who was being escorted in, he instinctively rushed over and pulled her into his arms.
Seeing him, Shen Yuefu struggled desperately, crying as she threw herself into Song Chengyu’s embrace.
“Brother Chengyu, save me! These people want to kill me, they want to kill me!”
“Jiang Zhaoying, what are you doing?”
Madam Song, seeing Shen Yuefu bound and mistreated, angrily rushed forward to question her. Xu Zhiyan immediately stepped in front of her, his gaze icy as he stared at Madam Song, forcing her raised hand back down.
“Is this the cousin you planned to take away for romance and pleasure after faking your death?”
“I did not fake my death.”
Song Chengyu lifted his handsome face, his eyes filled with helplessness.
Shen Yuefu wept pitifully, tears streaming down like rain, yet she still found the time to glance at Jiang Zhaoying, her expression full of provocation.
This sight.
Made Jiang Jianzheng flick his sleeve and let out a heavy snort.
Song Chengyu’s face stiffened, then he helped Shen Yuefu up and took a step back, saying:
“Cousin, this matter has nothing to do with you. Don’t be afraid.”
After speaking, Song Chengyu hurriedly signaled Shen Yuefu with his eyes. Shen Yuefu understood, her face flushing with shyness as she timidly bowed to Song Chengyu.
“I’m sorry, cousin. I was rude.”
Then she turned to Jiang Zhaoying, tears in her eyes, and gave a pitiful, aggrieved smile.
“Cousin-in-law, my cousin and I grew up together, our bond is as close as siblings, and he has always been very fond of me.”
Jiang Zhaoying nodded as she listened.
“He certainly is fond of you, otherwise he wouldn’t have taken you far away on the very day of our wedding, leaving such a huge mess of the Song household for me to deal with.”
“That’s not how it is.” Shen Yuefu hurriedly shook her head. “Cousin-in-law, I am a young lady from a respectable family, my reputation is pure and unsullied. Please do not speak like this, or else even if I were to jump into a well, I could never clear my name.”
“Pure and unsullied?”
Jiang Zhaoying slowly turned and walked toward Shen Yuefu with a hint of pressure in her step, her gaze faintly lingering on the spot where Shen Yuefu’s Chastity Sand would be.
Following her line of sight, Shen Yuefu looked down at her own arm, her face instantly turning pale.